For my 8 year old’s birthday party she wanted a sleepover. I’m not a huge fan of sleepovers so we compromised on an “almost sleepover party”. The girls showed up in their pj”s and favorite doll or stuffed animal. We had games, pizza, crafts, dancing, and lots of fun! And the best part… everyone left at 9:00 so my girls still got a great night sleep and weren’t grumpy the next day!!

As soon as the girls arrived we headed out back to do sleeping bag relays. I divided them up into teams and gave each team a sleeping bag. This repay was a huge hit! They wanted to play it over and over again.

We headed inside to cool off and have pizza. Then the girls made their own Sundaes. This is such a fun, easy alternative to a cake. I bought lots of fun toppings and they had a blast making their own.

After the girls ate and were full of sugar we played Musical Nail Polish! This was a favorite! I set out 10 different colors of nail polish on the table, one in front of each girl. When the music started, the girls danced around the table. When the music stopped, they froze and had to paint one finger nail with whatever color they were in front of. By the end of the game, they had 10 different colored nails. Here is a picture of them showing off their beautiful manicures!

Our last activity was so fun! We made fleece sleeping bags for the girls’ dolls or stuffed animals. I saw this idea here. My daughter and I chose three sets of coordinating fabrics, one for the front and a different one for the back. The front piece should measure 20 in x 18 in. The back piece should measure 28 in x 18 in. I laid the two pieces of fabric on top of each other. I cut out a piece of cardboard 3.5 in x 3.5 in to use as a guide. I cut out the bottom two corners of both pieces of fabric.

Then, we cut fringe across the bottom and up both sides. The cuts were 1 inch apart, and 3.5 inches long, making them the same length as the cuts in the corners. At the party, the girls tied the front and back pieces together. Make sure that the pieces are lined up correctly or they will have to start over. The great thing about this project is that if they mess up it’s very easy to start again. These are the perfect size to fit American Girl Dolls or most stuffed animals. They turned out so cute!

I’m going to go ahead and ask you to ignore the fact that it has been almost a year since my last post. Life kind of got crazy last year and blogging was the last thing on my mind. But, I’m back and determined to resurrect my little blog by posting more often.

My youngest is now in Pre-K and goes to school 4 days a week. I plan activities for her to do on Mondays, the day she is home, while I home-school my other two girls. I try to follow along with what she has been doing in school or what she will be doing the following week. Here are a few things she did last week after reading Chicka Chicka abc at school.

I found a picture of a coconut tree and used different colored garage sale stickers. I wrote a lower case letter on each blank circle on the coconut tree and then one on each sticker. She had to match each letter by placing the sticker on the correct letter. She loved her colorful tree when she was finished.

Her next activity she spent a lot of time doing. It was a beach themed discovery box filled with sand, magnetic letters, and a plastic coconut cup. I gave her a magnetic wand to help her find the buried letters in the sand. I also gave her the book, Chicka Chicka abc in order to “act out” the story.

We made these easy, yummy treats this afternoon and they turned out great! There’s still time to make some before the big meal tomorrow. In fact, these would be perfect for the kids to work on tomorrow while you are cleaning and cooking.

*dip the tip of your sugar cone in water for about 20 seconds.

*put it in the microwave for another 15 to 20 seconds.

*use a pencil to curl the tip.

*fill the cone with M & M’s and then cover with saran wrap. I used a rubber band to hold it to the cone.

*use some ribbon to cover the rubber bands and dress it up a bit.

That’s it! These would be cute as place settings, center pieces, or just as a sweet dessert.

In school last week Molly talked about scarecrows. They made their own class scarecrow, read some sweet books, and made an adorable scarecrow of their own. She used fabric, straw, buttons, markers, and paint. I continued the scarecrow theme at home. Here are a few things we worked on.

I kept the kernels in her Discovery table from the apple theme but added some black beads (crows) for her to scare away with her shovel or tweezers.

I gave her alphabet stickers to match the upper case letters with. She loved this and actually decided to make a pattern with the letters too. She put the A on top of the typed A and then the B beside the typed B and so on. I love when she takes an activity I plan and extend it.

I made this pattern block scarecrow and put it on a cookie sheet. Then I gave her magnetic pattern blocks to make the scarecrow with.

I wrote this fun poem and wrote in some of her friends’ names and family names. She had a great time switching them out and “reading” who the scarecrow scared each time. This was a great activity to work on beginning letter sounds.

My little one goes to preschool 2 mornings a week and absolutely loves it. I take what she does in class and extend it the following week at home. A few weeks ago she talked about apples at school. They did taste tests of different apples, read fun books, and pretending to bake apple pies. Here are a few of the activities I planned for her.

She loves her Button Art and I highly recommend it. You use “buttons” to match colors in order to make different pictures. Here is a picture (sorry it’s cut off) of her apple tree.

Each week I try to include a discovery table. This is always a favorite! I put popcorn kernels, plastic apples, small containers, scoops, and tweezers. I also used some cherries from the High Ho Cherrio game as apples.

We did some activities with the letter A as well. I gave her a few dot markers to fill in the apples on the letter A.

I made an apple poem with some number cards. I made an apple tree with apples to act out the poem. She loved switching the numbers to match how many apples she wanted on her tree.